The field of mobile communication has witnessed a great revolution over the past two decades, with rapid development of new technologies to satisfy the ever increasing appetite for mobile communication applications and services. Examples of such technologies include CDMA 2000 Evolution Data Optimized (also referred to as 1xEV-DO) systems developed by Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2), Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), and LTE systems developed by 3GPP, and mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) systems developed by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Although the wireless technologies, such as LTE/LTE-A can provide data rates in the range of tens to hundreds of megabits per second (mbps), their capacity may soon be exhausted by increasing demands for even higher data rates required by data hungry applications such as video and music streaming. Furthermore, the number of subscribers to mobile communication services (already exceeding 5 billion), is expected to continue to grow rapidly.
In REF1, it is proposed to utilize the millimeter (mm) spectrum for developing the next generation of broadband mobile communication systems. Millimeter waves (mmWaves) refer to radio waves with wavelength in the range of 1 mm-10 mm, which corresponds to radio frequency of 30 GHz-300 GHz (herein “the millimeter wave band” or “the mmWave band”). Vast amount of spectrum (both licensed and unlicensed) are available in the millimeter wave band. For instance, in the United States, 7 GHz of unlicensed spectrum is available around 60 GHz frequency (referred to as the 60 GHz band). Further, in October 2003, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) allocated 12.9 GHz of spectrum for high-density fixed wireless services in the United States ((71-76 GHz, 81-86 GHz, and 92-95 GHz excluding the 94.0-94.1 GHz for Federal Government use). This spectrum allocation, collectively referred to as the E-band, is the largest spectrum allocation ever by FCC--50 times larger than the entire cellular spectrum.